title: Benefit-cost analysis of a controlled experiment: treating the mentally ill.
abstract: This study is the first benefit-cost analysis of a controlled (random assignment) experiment in the mental health field. It compares, in terms of an unusually wide variety of "tangible" and "intangible" forms of benefits and costs, a traditional hospital-based approach to treating the mentally ill with a nontraditional community-based approach. The study highlights the very different forms taken by the effects of the alternative therapies. Thus it shows how distorted conclusions can result from a failure of benefit-cost analyses to measure benefits and costs comprehensively; a change in form can be mistaken for a change in level of costs or benefits.
mesh_terms: D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000379:methods; D006302:Health Services Research; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D014481:United States